Washington and Oregon together produce 84 percent of the nation's pear crop, worth more than a third of a billion dollars. Much of this is exported, with a booming market in Mexico and an imminently exploding one in China. It's in the considerable interest of the United States, and especially the Pacific Northwest, to encourage such exports, and that's what the farm bill does.

Except there is no farm bill.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.Associated Press

The five-year farm bill, a collection of nutrition programs, subsidies to six major crops, marketing and research supports, crop insurance and conservation efforts, expired last year. By a bipartisan vote, the Senate passed a new version, but the House couldn't. The two houses followed the same sequence this year, and the one-year extension lapses Sept. 30, raising the prospect of U.S. farm policy reverting to -- wait for it -- 1949.

"I've been trying to move a farm bill for two years," said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D- Wash., in an appearance in Vancouver on Friday. "To me, the issue is the incredible economic opportunity at our doorstep," represented by "the growing middle class in Asia."

For decades, the farm bill was one of Congress's easier lifts. A 40-year-old deal combined nutrition programs, mostly food stamps, with farm spending and supports, creating a package with something for just about everybody. The arrangement still works in the Senate.

But in the House, the urge to cut hard at food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has blocked everything. The Senate-passed bill cuts the program by $4 billion over 10 years. The bill reported out by the House Agriculture Committee cuts $20 billion. But on the House floor, with Democrats resisting so deep a cut and many Republicans demanding $40 billion, the bill was defeated.

The leadership then separated, for the first time in decades, the agriculture and nutrition sections of the bill, passing it without a food stamp section. A House-Senate conference committee could still write a farm bill, but the House leadership -- fearing that the Senate would insist on its own food stamp language, especially since the House doesn't have any -- has refused to appoint House conference members.

"If they don't want to pass a SNAP program, fine, but let's go to conference," said Cantwell. "Don't hold it up because you don't have the votes. The farm bill is too important for that."

It has a particular importance for the Northwest, and for the pear. Over time, partly due to efforts from members such as Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., the only Northwesterner on either congressional Agriculture Committee, farm legislation has increased its marketing and research supports for "specialty crops," the fruits, vegetables and nuts that are a large part of Pacific Northwest agriculture. "Compared with previous farm bills," says Kevin Moffitt, president of the Pear Bureau Northwest, "I think that specialty crops do very well."

When Congress returns from recess after Labor Day, it will have nine work days before the Sept. 30 deadline. That could lead to another one-year extension, which hardly provides the long-term consistency agriculture needs for planting and planning.

"It creates uncertainty for both growers and consumers," warned U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture Kevin Concannon, a former Oregon state official, Wednesday. "It really does jeopardize growers and farmers, but creates a dent in the entire American economy as well."

The dent is notable in major agricultural states such as Oregon and Washington, looking to the bill not only for marketing and research support but for relief programs for agricultural disasters such as fire, drought and flood.

In the context of a bill authorizing hundreds of billions of dollars, supporting the nutrition and employment of millions of Americans, the pear may seem a small thing to consider.

But it's one reason why enacting a new farm bill needs to be a congressional specialty.